NASA New Space Station Module Name Honors Apollo 11 Anniversary

The International Space Station module formerly known as
Node 3 has a new name. After more than a million online responses,
the node will be called "Tranquility."

The name Tranquility was chosen from thousands of suggestions
submitted by participants on NASA's Web site, www.nasa.gov. The "Help
Name Node 3" poll asked people to vote for the module's name either
by choosing one of four options listed by NASA or offering their own
suggestion. Tranquility was one of the top 10 suggestions submitted
by respondents to the poll, which ended March 20.

"The public did a fantastic job and surprised us with the quality and
volume of the suggestions," said Bill Gerstenmaier, associate
administrator for Space Operations. "Apollo 11 landed on the moon at
the Sea of Tranquility 40 years ago this July. We selected
'Tranquility' because it ties it to exploration and the moon and
symbolizes the spirit of international cooperation embodied by the
space station."

NASA announced the name Tuesday with the help of Expedition 14 and 15
astronaut Suni Williams on Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report." The
show's producers offered to host the name selection announcement
after comedian Stephen Colbert took an interest in the poll and urged
his viewers to suggest the name "Colbert," which received the most
entries.

"We don't typically name U.S. space station hardware after living
people and this is no exception," Gerstenmaier joked. "However, NASA
is naming its new space station treadmill the 'Combined Operational
Load Bearing External Resistance Treadmill,' or COLBERT. We have
invited Stephen to Florida for the launch of COLBERT and to Houston
to try out a version of the treadmill that astronauts train on."

The treadmill is targeted to launch to the station in August. It will
be installed in Tranquility after the node arrives at the station
next year. A newly-created patch will depict the acronym and an
illustration of the treadmill.

Tranquility is scheduled to arrive at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in
Florida in May. There, it will be prepared for space shuttle
Endeavour's flight, designated STS-130, which is targeted for launch
in February 2010. Tranquility will join four other named U.S. modules
on the station: the Destiny laboratory, the Quest airlock, the Unity
node and the Harmony node.

Tranquility is a pressurized module that will provide room for many of
the space station's life support systems. Attached to the node is a
cupola, which is a unique work station with six windows on the sides
and one on top.

Suni Williams made the announcement on "The Colbert Report" two years
after running the Boston Marathon in space on a station treadmill
similar to COLBERT. Video of Williams' run and the name announcement
on "The Colbert Report" will air on NASA Television's Video File. For
NASA TV downlink, streaming video and scheduling information, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/ntv